(Reuters) - Britain's Arbuthnot Banking Group Plc <ARBB.L> reported a jump in first-half pretax profit and said it would set up a specialist secured lending unit to provide short-term secured loans to property businesses and entrepreneurs.
Arbuthnot, which has its roots in 185-year-old private and commercial bank and wealth manager Arbuthnot Latham, said pretax profit increased to 3.5 million pounds ($4.6 million) from 2.5 million pounds a year earlier.
"In line with our diversification strategy we have also reached an agreement with an incoming management team to establish a new lending division that will be named Arbuthnot Specialist Lending," Chairman Henry Angest said.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)
